Butterfly Cabinet, Heaton Review

For what seems to be 10 years we’ve driven past the Butterfly Cabinet and previously Belle and Herbs. Every time we went be there was a huge queue and we said: “we must try there one day”. It’s daft that it has taken so long to eventually getting around to it. Friends that have been had mentioned that the Butterfly Cabinet breakfast menu is the one to try. So with military planning, we set a course for a Sunday Morning Breakfast special.

Butterfly Cabinet, Heaton

The Butterfly Cabinet is located at 200 Heaton Road, Newcastle. In a building that many, many years ago used to be the Falmouth Hotel. The high ceilings are decorated with ornate plasterwork. A keen eye will also spot that the plasterwork continues through the adjoining wall to the hairdressers next door. The interior is stripped back, with a little quirkiness added in. Realistically the best phrase to describe the set up is “honest”. Which I think is why it has such a great reputation, that keeps people coming back for more.

Which brings me to our breakfast plan. On a Sunday the Butterfly Cabinet opens at 10 am. Anyone who knows the place will also know there is a queue snaking around the corner and past the café. I’d been doing some sign related work there and got chatting with the staff, who gave me a tip. She had arrived at 9:45am and joined the queue, but got seated straight away when it opened. So, this was my plan too. Get the kids ready travel to Heaton, park up and be in the queue at that time. By 9:50am there were 6 groups in front of us and 4 behind us. It was freezing so I focused on the timings. Counting down the 10am opening.

The door opened and everyone filtered in finding their own tables. It was slightly weird how 15 tables of people were marching in all at the same time. The staff knew exactly what to do and swooped around with menus for everyone, followed by starting to take orders. Seamlessly smooth. But, I did notice that the café was full and the queue went down the outside of the Butterfly Cabinet.

Butterfly Cabinet Breakfast Drinks

First things first… Coffee! I need lots of coffee in the morning and this Americano hit the spot. I love nice strong coffee, so I drip a splash of milk in just to lighten the colour.

Abigail wanted a Hot Chocolate, which is made with hot milk. Imogen being “of that age” wanted Apple juice with a side of diet coke. Abigail also being “of that age”, decided that when the Hot Chocolate arrived, she wanted the coke instead, which started a drinks rotation on the table.

We write this blog partly for our experience, but also to share the experience. So when we all decided that we were having the same breakfast, I change my order, then so did Abigail.

Butterfly Cabinet Breakfast Menus

Abigail’s choice was the English breakfast. Although it wasn’t really. She wanted to order everything separately for £1.50 per item which would have worked out at £1.50 more than just ordering the “English Breakfast”.

Imogen wanted the USA breakfast (which I also wanted). Bacon, Sausage, Hash Browns and fluffy pancakes with a pot of maple syrup.

I had no idea what white pudding was, but hey, when you have this much food on the plate does it matter? Then to round it off even more, the kids decided they didn’t want hash browns so an extra 4 crispy potato cakes were piled on the top. The Business Breakfast is priced at £9 and I think for the amount of food that you get it is good value for money. The Potatoes scones are amazing. Another first for me and I loved them.

Imogen wolfed down her USA breakfast (£7.50), I ate most of mine but left 1 black pudding and 1 white pudding. Abigail nibbled her bacon and sausage, so Imogen helped out eating the fried eggs. Imogen commented that the sausages are spicy, but what she means is peppery. They were “real” ones, not the bright pink fluffy ones.

The Sunday Breakfast experience at The Butterfly Cabinet Café was time well spent with the kids. The atmosphere was relaxed and we left full to the top. As we approached the car I looked back and saw at least 15 people queued up waiting for the next tables. Be prepared.

We’ve only been the once and we did enjoy it but the queuing does make it a bit of a mission! We went on a week day to try and avoid it being busy but there was still a line of people waiting to get in! We really enjoyed our food but haven’t been back since .. because of that damn queue!